Ramon Flores and his next-door neighbor grew up on the Northwest Side playing tag in the park and taking turns being "Ghost in the Graveyard."

Early Monday, the childhood friends ran for their lives together. Flores didn't make it.

"I can just always picture it," said the friend, 18, who asked not to be named because he was worried about his safety. "He looked at me in my eyes."

The two had been hanging out on Flores' porch in the 2400 block of North Meade Avenue around 12:20 a.m., listening to music from the band Gorillaz, when a gunman dressed in black fired at least five shots from the other side of the street, according to Chicago police and witnesses.

The two ran to the backyard for cover.

"Ramon was already grabbing the wall because he got shot," the friend said. "He was trying to hold on to his balance."

Blood was streaking down his right arm and pooling in his hand, the friend said. Flores was having trouble breathing and couldn't talk.

"He showed me the blood in his hand. I’m pretty sure he was trying to give me a signal like, 'Call 911.' He looked at me and then he fell back," the friend said.

Paramedics rushed Flores to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead at 12:57 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The bullet had entered his arm and traveled into his chest, police said. He was 21.

Warning: graphic content. Shootings continue with over 400 homicides this year putting Chicago on pace to have a deadlier year than 2016.

(Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

More than a dozen friends and relatives gathered outside Flores' brick home in the Belmont Central neighborhood as detectives investigated. Flores' acquaintances had shown up at the hospital but were told they couldn't wait there, a friend said.

A Chicago police officer talked to the family in Spanish to explain what investigators were doing. The officer said it was his first crime scene since graduating from the academy this summer.

Flores' family hugged each other and cried. A young woman flung her arms around Flores’ mother, who was leaning against a car.

"No, no, no, no," the young woman sobbed.

She sunk to the ground and rocked as she balled herself up.

“They didn’t have to take him away from me. And from his mom and his whole family. No!” she screamed.

Friends spoke of Flores as fun-loving and family-oriented.

"He was very silly, he was outgoing," Flores' childhood friend said. "He was very social. He liked to talk to people. That's how he is."

But Flores also faced struggles.

He had been involved in gangs since high school, his friend said. He tried hiding it for a while, but his involvement had become known. His mother dogged him to get out of that life, fearing it could bring danger to the family, the friend said.

"We didn’t butt in with his life, he didn’t butt in with our life," the friend said. "He got along with all types of people, though. I see it as more bad blood toward him."

Flores' parents declined to comment.

When a police officer took down the red crime tape, relatives flowed back into the home. They crowded together on the porch.